We are returning in June for what is likely the last WDW trip for a long time. It includes me, DW, DD9, DS2 and MiL. Its the last time before DD is an “adult” in Disney’s eyes and DS needs a ticket. We currently have 7 day tickets and will be staying at ASMusic in a family suite. We’re firm followers of rope drop, nice mid day break then return in the evenings touring.
We’ve never park hopped before as it just seems like a big extra charge and theres so much to do in each park. Why should I give park hopping a try? Heres our park days as of now with dining plans
6/15 arrive, QS at resort or Dis Springs if we’re ambitious
6/16 AK QS
6/17 EP F&G booths/ QS may flip these days to avoid EP on a Saturday
6/18 AK Yak&Yeti lunch
6/19 MK my b-day and CRT dinner!
6/20 “off day” Chef Art Smith at DS then water park evening
6/21 HS Rodeo BBQ whenever
6/22 EP F&G booths Space 220 lounge
6/23 MK QS
6/24 check out, O’hana bfast 7pm flight home
Also to consider is DS is in a stroller and MiL will use an ECV. To hop, or not to hop, that is the question.
If you’re going back for an afternoon break anyway, park hopping is no hassle. It gives you more flexibility to just pop in to a park for dinner, or whatever you want to pop in for. If you’re at AK but it shuts at 7, the fun doesn’t have to be over - you can go to a different park.
That’s how I feel. With midday breaks, it was absolutely not a big deal to go to a different park. Especially from ASMusic, where you are taking busses anyway.
If you are using G+, park hopping also allows you to ride standby in the morning and stack for the evening (hello Hollywood Studios!).
When I was thinking about all of this last night this is probably the reason I may do it. We only have the 1 HS day scheduled because we had to make the hard choice of which park doesn’t get a repeat and its HS. Its possibly my favorite (or MK) but has few attractions and many of them have height requirements or MiL wont ride (ToT and RnRC). Hopping would mean more HS time.
Last night for about an hour I was thinking about convincing DW to let me do after hours at HS but realized I could never stay up until 1am to make it worthwhile without taking allot of drugs (don’t worry I mean caffeine and Mickey bars) and its another $150!
I believe in hopping because you can plan as much as you want…but Disney may have other ideas. A ride your kids were desperate to ride may be down the day you’re there. Or you find they are newly obsessed with something and although you are tapped out on animals, you could spend another 8 hours watching Slinky Dog roll by.
Then, you could also tour EP in the AMs and skip out of there on Saturday before the crowds get too unruly/drunk.
Also, Animal Kingdom closes earlier than any other park…so if you’re taking a good chunk of the afternoons off to avoid the sweltering heat…you’re not going to have much time in the evenings (though, with kids that young, maybe you’re calling it a day by 8pm anyway - I have very little knowledge of how kids work)
We also rarely park hop. It has always come with the added expense and no clear advantage. I could see room for that to be different with the G+ option, but nonetheless, as rope drop to close type people, it never made sense for us to use up time hopping.
Park hopping for us meant that the kids could ride their favorites multiple times by using G+ over the course of our 4 park days. DS4 had very very low tolerance for lines, and this allowed us to skip them for his favorites. I got to take DS8 on ROTR 5 times!
To me - you answered your own question - you want more HS time. And a hopper should be less than $150 extra. My mom doesn’t ride much at all - but she loves shows and waiting in line with my kids for characters. Those are worth it for her.
The downside to HS for characters/shows is that many are done by 5pm. However, you could always start there one day and hop to EPCOT. I bet DS2 would love meeting the Disney Jr characters or Woody/Buzz/Sulley while you rode bigger rides. They are also big enough for Aliens.
Are you buying G+? If not, I would spend extra money in my budget for G+ over park hoppers.
If you are already buying G+, then it is a tough call on hoppers. We usually get hoppers because we stay at Bay Lake and enjoy hopping to MK a couple evenings during our visit and then walking back to the resort. But I’ve contemplated whether that luxury is really worth the price of hoppers.
In terms of HS, without a hopper you can still RD a couple rides in HS, do the meet and greets and then stack LL for a return in the evening.
If I decided to go back to the parks in the evening, I would have no desire to go back to the same park. When DS was younger we just did one park and then back to the resort when we were done. With park hopping being beneficial to Genie+, and with DS being older, I’ve chosen to park hop this time. Depends on what you want to do!
We like having the park hopper option, and take advantage of it because we don’t really feel locked in. However, there is limited usefulness to it…AND you can start to find yourself making plans that are “unnatural” JUST BECAUSE you have park hoppers. But if you have less than 4 days in the parks, or more than, say, 6, park hoppers MIGHT be useful. But from 4 to 6 days, I’m not convinced it is worth it.
I think there are advantages to park hopping, but the value added for the cost involved are strongly related to the length of trip/number of park days. Looking at your plan, I don’t see it as an absolute must for the cost involved. I do recommend G+ for your HS day hands down.
On our last trip, we bought 4 day base tickets with a plan to visit each park once. The closer the trip got, the more I started to worry that the weather (August) could affect things and we might miss something by only giving each park one chance. If we’d had more days, I wouldn’t have been so concerned. In our case, we added the hoppers and ended up at 2 or more parks each day except our HS day - and the weather was a factor that week, and we would have missed some things without the chance to circle back on another day.
You mean like making the final day the “kitchen sink” day and hitting all 4 parks to revisit the kids’ favorites even if it means your feet are stumps by the end of it? Hypothetically, of course
Very much this! I find myself contemplating 4 parks in one day just because we can! In reality with this group it would just be allot of travel time for what lol
I don’t know the price comparison offhand, but if I were choosing between:
(1) G+ and ILL 4-5 days with park hoppers; or
(2) G+ and ILL for 7 days with no park hoppers.
I would choose option 2. I think I would be able to experience many more attractions with Option 2.
Also, for what it is worth I’d consider 2 days at HS instead of 2 days at AK even without riding ToT and RnRC. My kids (ages 7 and 5) love TSL, SW:GE and MMRR so much that they want to ride everything at least twice.
But - if you are worried about there not being enough at HS for DS2 - you can always split up for a day. Maybe half the group goes to MK or AK while the other half goes to HS.
We did this for a morning - my mom, dad, and DS8 went to EPCOT while DH and I took DS4 to MK.
Good question. I’m wrestling with this myself–I’ll be interested to see what kind of responses you get.